Sunday, 12 February 2012

In the long
forgotten days of yesteryear, pre-children, those golden days when you could
laze around on a Sunday morning drinking tea, eating bacon butties and
spreading the Sunday Times out all over the bed/ settee/living room floor are
sooooooo long gone!

I still buy
them occasionally to remind me of what our life used to be like and in the
vague hope that those type of lazy mornings will one day revisit our home. The
reality is they are now just spread over the kitchen floor to soak up the
snow/rain/mud when the kids charge back in from the garden or on the dining
room table to catch the glue/paint spillages when the Mister Maker box of
delights comes out!

I sometimes
happen to glance down and a headline grabs my attention so I just bend down and
read it there, on the floor, amongst the wellies or shift a child and their
work of art over a bit so I can catch the sports results.

So I guess
our life hasn't really changed that much since having 3 children in the last 6
years after all...just a few more bacon butties to be made!

Thursday, 9 February 2012

Ok, seeing as I am feeling a bit fluey with no inspiration for something to blog about today, now would seem a good time to join in The Gallery...best idea I have seen so far of getting people to join in..see Tara Cain's The Photo Gallery

This week is 'A Family Story' so here is my photo...

...an easy one to choose. My parents celebrate 50 years of marriage this coming September and are still in love after all these years. My Dad turned 80 last August and when we asked what he fancied doing for such a momentous birthday, a nice restaurant or a trip to the Opera or Theatre...he said he just wanted to go where our children like to go so he could sit and watch them play and have fun...we all spent the day at Bushy Park and he did just that!

They have been the most incredible loving parents to my sister and I and just inspire me on a regular basis. Along with fostering many children for as many years as I can remember, they also adopted my sister and I as babies which, in our eyes, makes them even more special.

I can't wait to celebrate their special anniversary with them later this year.

Wednesday, 8 February 2012

I find everybody always likes to moan on Mondays and about Mondays...understandably as they've usually enjoyed a fun or relaxing weekend with family or friends and now it's all systems go, back to the grind stone etc. In our household, it's generally just another day with the school run thrown in just to spice it up a bit.

Being a sports photographer, CameraGuy works 99% of weekends so it's just me and the 3 children on a Saturday & Sunday, going it alone, trying to do what the majority of families do...sports clubs/matches, day trips out, endless birthday parties and the like...but with just one pair of parenting hands. It's fine (knackering, sometimes relentless!) but makes Mondays less of a miserable day.

...so I thought I would try to not moan on or about Mondays...I'm going to wait for Wednesdays! I figure my moans would just be lost amongst everyone else's if I joined in at the start of the week. Then I'd count to 10 or hold my tongue on Tuesdays, but on Wednesday...that's when I am going to whinge. If it's still bothering me by Wednesday then I figure I have earnt the right to get it out and have a little (or a large) rant.

...so Welcome to the 1st of my 'Whinge on Wednesdays'...the only trouble is I can't remember what I wanted to whinge about...point to self for next week...write it down!

Tuesday, 7 February 2012

Happy
Birthday to Charles Dickens then! I'm sure he'd be delighted that Prince
Charles & Camilla were sharing a cup of Rosie Lee to celebrate him being so
old.

I feel like
I have a small affinity with Charles (...Dickens, not the Royal one!) as my Dad
has the full collection of his books and I grew up looking at the beautiful old
tomes all covered in dust...it didn't occur to me that I might actually pluck
one of the shelf and read one. They didn't sound as exciting as my Nancy Drew
adventures or latest copy of Blue Jeans. I don't recall covering his stories in
English at school either although I was in more productions of A Christmas
Carol than I care to remember (never a decent part..bah humbug!) I always
thought I should read them as it would've been a few extra points at pub
quizzes if I knew who Mrs Havisham or Peggotty were.

I then spent
a couple of years at college in Broadstairs and everywhere you looked were
Dickens related places...mainly the pubs where I spent most of my time, The
Charles Dickens & Fagins to name a few. There was a Museum there too along with Bleak House but they weren't really on the schedule in those carefree days. So we were both predominantly from Kent...always a soft spot for people from the same county as me!

And now,
nearly a grown up, I am finally reading my first Dickens novel, David
Copperfield...inspired by the BBC's adaptation of Great Expectations, which I
loved, I suggested it to the Book Club girlies and they went along with it. I
can't deny there were a few groans when everyone’s Amazon deliveries arrived to
find that it was 700+ pages of the smallest print! I was going to borrow Dad's
dusty old copy but was snowed off at the weekend so downloaded it for free on
iBooks and have got stuck in. What a surprise to find out that it is really fun
to read, not hard going at all...a bit disconcerting reading it on my iPod as
only on p261 of 3893 mind! I have also learnt what a 'caul' is ("I was
born with a caul, which was advertised for sale, in the newspapers, at the low
price of fifteen guineas") so I reckon that could be a
help in a Pub Quiz too (I don't actually do Pub Quizzes but if I did...!).
Tip...if you google what a 'caul' is, don't do google images...yikes!

Having
watched Sue Perkins 'Mrs Dickens' at Christmas, it transpires that he was
actually a bit of a rogue and pretty awful to his wife (understatement) but I
can't deny, he wrote some fab stories and I will definitely dust off a few more
of my Dad's collection in the future.

Monday, 6 February 2012

My husband
left for Russia for the week (Sports Photographer, to be referred to as 'Camera
Guy') so having to wake up (did I ever get to sleep?) earlier than usual in
order to get 3 children changed, dressed, fed and out the door in all the
attire winter requires is no mean feat...oh, and on time occasionally, not
really my idea of fun.

I used to
struggle being on time when it was just me...I was the eternal optimist where
time was concerned believing I could cross from one side of London to the other
in approx 10mins but never quite succeeding. I have slowly realised (it took
the 3rd baby to arrive) that you need to allow a minimum of hour an hour to
actually make it out the door with everyone and everything. Sometimes I fall
back into that unrealistic optimist mode and have the embarrassment of
traipsing via the school office en mass, double buggy, school bag, water bottle
etc to fill out the 'late arrival' book...love the section where you have to
put the reason for your child's lateness, it's a smaller box than where you
fill in your child's name...unrealistic really given that I could fill a couple
of pages on the reasons why...!

However this
morning, 6yr old son managed to squeeze through the gap as the school gate was
closing saving me the hassle of writing in the 'book of shame'! To celebrate
our achievement we went into town and slumped in Nero's for coffee &
croissants.

Sunday, 5 February 2012

...so I guess there is no time like the present, even though 'that' time is nearly 11pm on a frozen Sunday evening following 2 sleepless nights. My vision is blurred and my head slightly fuzzy and it's nothing to do with the empty glass of red sat by my side...honest!

Just in case I wasn't 'quite' busy enough, I have taken the jump after vague mumblings on other social network sites, namely FB & Twitter, of starting to blog...I don't know why because I really don't have the time but I am in real need of trying something new. Having been on maternity for what feels like the last 6 years with a short hop back to work in between the 3 children, I am in grave danger of succumbing to nappy brain and I am fighting back!

I generally have a lot to say on all manner of topics & interests but most of the words that currently come out of my mouth consist of 'hurry up', 'eat up', 'tidy up' and 'CAREFUL!!'...the last one usually yelled after the event..pointless! I figure no one listens to me at home so why not blog a bit to no one in particular and if anyone actually decides to listen..well that will be a nice surprise. I'm also a good listener so I am looking forward to reading lots of other peoples blogs.

This feels like a big step into the unknown and I am preparing for the stumbles, falls and full-on face plants that will definitely happen while I find my footing. I would appreciate any comments & advice from all you experienced bloggers as well as newcomers like myself. I hope as it goes along, I will find some semblance of order/organisation in my blurb...oh actually, strike that, it's highly unlikely..order & organisation is a distant memory from my work life, I much prefer chaos & disorder, so will continue in that vein.

So that's it folks (how many people have signed off with that old Warner Bros line?)..my humble beginnings as a 'blogster'..improvements & updates soon.